AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) may be considered a secondary immunodeficient pathology induced by Human Immunodeficiency Viruses or HIVs.
The immunological profile typical of AIDS, from the initial infection to the terminal stages of the disease, shows the effects of the gradual impairment of the immune system.
In AIDS, the onset of cellular immunity and immune surveillance with consequent destruction of CD4+ T-cells allows the invasion of opportunistic organisms resulting in viral, bacterial, protozoal or fungal infections as well as the onset of virally induced tumors due to the lack of the immune cells which should suppress their appearance.
AIDS therapy is presently based on the use of anti-retroviral agents belonging to three categories.    HIV protease inhibitors;    Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI);    Non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI).
Said drugs may be used alone or more frequently in combination.
The therapeutic approach based on vaccination is presently still at an experimental level, with interlocutory results. The therapy of patients affected by AIDS involves moreover the administration of agents suitable for treating said opportunistic infections.
A known aspect of HIV infection is the increase of oxidative stress which may contribute to enhance the replication of HIV itself, explaining at least partially the immunological anomalies connected to HIV pathology.
It was observed that the increase of oxidative stress in HIV infected patients is associated with the depletion of natural antioxidant agents, particularly of reduced glutathione (GSH).
It has also been experimentally shown that GSH and N-acetylcysteine can inhibit the HIV reverse transcription process (M. Kameoka et al., AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses 12: 1635-8 (1996)) and that GSH administered in a murine model of immunodeficiency is able to decrease the proviral DNA load in the first stage of infection (A. T. Palamara et al., AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses 12: 1373-81 (1996)). Notwithstanding these results, the use of GSH has never been proposed for therapeutic treatment of AIDS.
It has now been surprisingly found that the administration of glutathione reductase can restore the natural immune defenses and can validly contribute in preventing HIV-induced pathology and in treating it in already infected patients.